Aavin to add 5 more bulk milk coolers in dist

Coimbatore: Aavin is on a mission to increase the quality of milk procured and sold in the district. For this, in the coming year it would add five more bulk milk coolers (BMCs) to cool milk procured from farmers through co-operatives. This would be in addition to the nine existing BMCs in the district, said Aavin officials.
Aavin procures 1.55lakh litres of milk a day from 333 cooperatives across the district, said Ishwar S Janmatti, the general manager of the Coimbatore District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd, whose trademark is Aavin Coimbatore. Of the 1.55lakh litres, 50% is cooled at the three chilling centres, 40% is cooled at the nine BMCs and the remaining 10% is brought directly in cans to the Aavin plant at Pachapalayam, he said.
The 90% of milk which is cooled at chilling centres and BMCs are then brought by insulated tankers to the Aavin plant at Pachapalayam near the city, where they are processed, pasteurised and packed. “We are aiming to pre-cool 100% of the milk we procure to increase quality,” said Janmatti. As cooling reduces bacterial load and arrests proliferation of bacteria, it is directly related to the quality of milk, he added.
They were in the process of finalising the locations were the five new BMCs would come up in the district, he said. “The budget for each BMC including the civil work would be around Rs25 lakh. Each BMC would be of 5,000litre capacity,” he added.
The nine BMCs in the district were constructed over a period of more than five years. Before that, only 50% of the total procured milk would cooled at the three chilling centres and the rest 50% would be brought directly in cans to the main dairy. Because of this, in summer around 10% of procured milk would be spoiled, said officials. The nine BMCs have helped to bring down the spoilage, they said.